So on my good friend Megan's suggestion, I ate out at Chipotle today--but ordered a salad instead of burrito or burrito bowl. The key is to feel like your splurging without adding all those calories, so I ordered a salad with black beans, pico de gallo, corn, and a heaping amount of guacamole. Then I went back to the office and figured how much my guacamole splurg would cost me.
Turns out--not that much. According to the nutritional information on Chipotle's website, my salad was only 380 calories. That's practically a Lean Cuisine! I've always been told a full burrito can be your entire day's calorie intake, so I feel a LOT less guilty about eating there so much now.
Take a look at the calories of each ingredient:
Right off the bat, I notice that Guacamole isn't so much a splurge if you balance it out by removing something else (I didn't get cheese). Plus the guacamole was very creamy and flavorful, so I didn't need to use the vinaigrette sauce, which turns out to have nearly as many calories as my salad! Another random calorie bump I was not expecting: corn salsa, up at 80 calories. I don't like corn that much, especially when the green salsa is only 20!
Some other random notes. Chips are the most caloric thing on the menu--as much as I like them, I'm going to say no from here on out. Another best practice is to be more selective with your ingredients. You know it's too much food--so instead of getting MEAT and BEANS and GUAC and SOUR CREAM....change it up. I stopped ordering beans on my meat burritos awhile ago, and it really makes the meat flavors stand out a lot more. Or when I want guacamole, don't get cheese and sour cream--swapping it out will help balance your scales a lot more.
Turns out--not that much. According to the nutritional information on Chipotle's website, my salad was only 380 calories. That's practically a Lean Cuisine! I've always been told a full burrito can be your entire day's calorie intake, so I feel a LOT less guilty about eating there so much now.
Take a look at the calories of each ingredient:
Some other random notes. Chips are the most caloric thing on the menu--as much as I like them, I'm going to say no from here on out. Another best practice is to be more selective with your ingredients. You know it's too much food--so instead of getting MEAT and BEANS and GUAC and SOUR CREAM....change it up. I stopped ordering beans on my meat burritos awhile ago, and it really makes the meat flavors stand out a lot more. Or when I want guacamole, don't get cheese and sour cream--swapping it out will help balance your scales a lot more.
That's something I learned from reading Geneen Roth's books on intuitive eating (she of Oprah-book fame, Women, Food and God.I read a different one, but I understand they are all pretty similar): Eat what you really, really want, and ignore stuff you just don't care about. At Chipotle, for me, it's always their guacamole. Other places, it's French fries. Instead of having EVERYTHING AWESOME EVER, I try to focus on only the thing I want most ever.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't always work, of course. Sometimes I do want everything awesome ever! But it's about balancing that with days that I don't.
Most of the stuff is healthy, come on its more healthy than "fast food" u gotta admit. Just avoid processed stuff like cheese or stuff cooked with a ton of oil and fat. If calories are coming from natural foods than its not gonna just sit in ur body and cause problems, will give you more energy to therefore exercise and live better. I don't count calories its just what I go by.
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